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Lifetime Is Cuckoo For Coco

  • Variety, Thursday, December 27, 2007 10:46 AM
Lifetime has its heart set on a miniseries about the life of Coco Chanel, and the women's cable net has snared Shirley MacLaine to play the long-dead designer. MacLaine will play Chanel in her later years, as she sets out to re-establish a reputation as a trendsetter, while actress Barbora Bobulova gets the nod for the younger Coco. The two-part miniseries is set for a 2008 run.

The script, written by Enrico Medioli of "Once Upon a Time in America" fame, follows Chanel's rise starting in the French orphanage where she grew up. Director Christian Duguay says he is intrigued by the story of Chanel, and isn't making a show just about the world of high fashion. "We've worked hard with it, and turned it into something that is meaningful and worth making an event miniseries," he says. "There's no point in doing it if it won't educate people and entertain, but in an original way. It's a love story, it's a rags-to-riches story--it has some strong social statements about women and about how the world has changed."

Chanel chief Karl Lagerfeld has given his blessing to the project and his design house, helping to make sure the production gets the details right.

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